Curry Masala

Wednesday, October 11th, 2017

Ladies, gentlemen, teenagers and little people, I would like to introduce you to my curry masala.  It’s National Curry Week, the new website shop has gone live and it’s time to introduce you to our little family of spices.  These little sachets of flavour guaranteed to turn your cooking skills from zero to hero as long as you follow some simple rules.

The rules for Curry Masala are simple, rules, you ask?  If using onions, cook them well, especially if you want a good sauce for your curry, they should never be seen but always there for a base, unless you choose to make a butter chicken.  Butter chicken is the easiest curry to make, well my version is because you stir-fry marinated chicken in some fried ginger and garlic.  Here is the recipe, just for you: /recipe/butter-chicken/

butter chicken

The Curry Masala story starts like this, once upon a time, there was a spice box, fresh herbs, ginger, garlic, onions, each requiring individual attention, producing the delicious culinary experience, which we know as curry.  I very early on realised that curry masala was the secret to making healthy, happy curries, if I devised a way of roasting and grinding the spices so it’s one easy spice pack for you, rather than the usual five ingredients, (ginger, garlic, chillies, turmeric and garam masala) you may just choose to have a go at making curries from scratch.

Curry masala is the secret to making healthy, happy curries.  Healthy because you don’t need to use lots of butter or oil and happy because the spice is mild enough for every member of the family to enjoy them.

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I’m here to support your cooking journey, not complicate it. How many of us have jars of spices, purchased for a particular dish and they never get used again?  So curry masala is my solution to easy curry making, it delivers flavour, allows you to have that beautiful versatile curry sauce and it is so convenient to use.  Curry Masala… works like magic.

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The tastiest dish of all is curry and it can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything between.  Little did I know or recognise the beast that I had created, babies eating it, the ladies of the Women’s Institute devouring it for supper and the fabulous feedback from the corporates continues to blow me away.

The spicing element is convenient, healthy and natural when using curry masala, there’s no need to worry about any nasty E numbers and you can decide if you want to fry, boil, bake or a combination to cook your onions through, cooking onions well is essentially the most important start to the best curry sauce, I cannot stress that enough.

Onions frying in pan

Water, yes, use water to protect those golden spices from burning, the other option is to use lots of butter or oil but if you have eaten my curries, then I use very little oil or butter, adding butter towards the end, only for special occasions.

Cook your main ingredients from raw, the only exception is when I make spicy potatoes, lentils or beans. I would never cook meat, chicken or fish and then add it to a curry sauce, it’s a big NO in the Indian kitchen.

Either take the time, love and patience to cook the onions or leave them out, there’s no compromise here.  A spice sachet is 18g of my curry masala can “curry” up to a kg of meat, fish, veg or lentils.  The only two seasoning you may like to add is salt and/or chilli.

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If you have not smelt or tasted the curry masala in all its’ glory, then this week, might be the time to try it.  Here’s a little link to my new online shop:

/shop/

 

Thank you, as always for reading and getting in touch!

 


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About Lajina

Lajina Leal, Lajina Masala


Lajina Leal, Founder, Lajina Masala

Lajina had a Corporate Career as an Accountant for many years and whilst discussing an impending redundancy in an Indian restaurant with her friends, they persuaded her to set up an Indian Cooking School.

The fun started in October 2013 and the business has grown from strength to strength.

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